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New Push to Invest in Illinois’ Roads and Bridges

The Chicago Laborers' District Council, along with business groups, announced a new legislative push that will provide about $1.8 billion a year to invest in Chicago’s crumbling infrastructure. The investment would help make roads, bridges, rail systems and airports safer and more efficient, and would support thousands of jobs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently released their 2014 Infrastructure Report Card for the state of Illinois. The state’s bridges received a C+, and it's roads received a D+.

The Transportation for Illinois Coalition says $1.8 billion in annual revenue would fund both “pay-as-you-go spending” and a bonding program that would get the state’s roads to 90 percent acceptable condition, 93 percent acceptable condition for bridges and millions of dollars for “long-overdue” transit improvements in the Chicago area.

The funding would be split:

80 percent for roads, bridges and airports

20 percent for transit needs – the first ongoing funding for the congested Chicagoland network

60 percent of the road and bridge funding would go to the state’s network, and 40 percent to local roads